1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a turn-around time information management system, a storage medium, and a turn-around time information management method for specifically and quickly notifying a customer of a turn-around time of a product.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, when an order of a product is received, the customer is notified of the price and the turn-around time for delivery of the product to the customer. When the product is available in stock, the turn-around time can be accurately calculated based on the shipping arrangement period. Even if the product is not available in stock, as long as all of the components required for manufacturing the product are available in the warehouse, the turn-around time can be calculated relatively accurately based on the manufacturing schedule of the product on the manufacturing line.
However, if the product is not available in stock or if any of the components for assembling the product is not available in stock, it is not easy to notify the customer of an accurate turn-around time. For example, when selling personal computers via the Internet, in order to enable the customer to determine the specifications in detail, a list of components is provided to prompt selection of components, and a total price is calculated and an estimated price and turn-around time are displayed. In this case, the longest turn-around time of the product, which has been calculated in advance, is displayed to notify the customer, for example, that the product will be delivered within ten days.
The conventional art described is subjected to the following problems.
If the turn-around time of which the customer is notified is inaccurate, more queries will be made from the customer, resulting in loss of trust. Thus, when the turn-around time is displayed on a Web page as described above, a turn-around time is displayed that includes a certain amount of leeway. However, considering that the turn-around time will be compared with that of products of other companies, displaying a turn-around time with too much leeway is not desirable from the perspective of sales strategy.
Meanwhile, if it is found, after the confirmation of an order, that some of the components are not available in stock and that the turn-around time will be longer than the turn-around time of which the customer has originally been notified with consideration of the schedule of receiving the components, the customer is notified of an accurate turn-around time, for example, over the phone. That is, operators in charge of receiving orders must perform various jobs, including changing turn-around times and handling queries from customers. The load associated with such jobs has been considerably large and has increased sales costs.
For example, when products are sold on a Web page over the Internet, sales costs for exhibiting the products at shops, selling the products to the customers, and explaining the products to the customers can be significantly reduced. However, if a need for frequent queries regarding turn-around times and for notification of turn-around times arises as described above, the advantages of network-based sales will be reduced or lost.